Sonan gafu 楚南画譜

FSC-GR-780.503

Commentary by Ellis Tinios

Posted August 16, 2017

The Edo-based Maruyama-Shijō artist Ōnishi Chinnen has two remarkable books to his credit: this title, Sonan gafu, and Azuma no teburi (FSC-GR-780.502). The latter is a “genre book” (jinbutsu gafu 人物画譜, literally “album of figures”) that presents the pleasures of life in Edo just as Yamaguchi Soken’s 1799 Yamato jinbutsu gafu (FSC-GR-780.767.1-3) and Nishimura Nantei’s 1804 Nantei gafu (FSC-GR-464.1-3) depict the pleasures of life in Kyoto.

Sonan gafu, translated as an “album of paintings” from the brush of Sonan, the latter being one of Chinnen’s art names. The lengthy preface by Tsukitono-no-aruji Minamoto no Masumi (dates unknown) is followed by a table of contents that identifies each of the twenty-five double-page illustrations making up the body of the book. Within the compass of those designs, Chinnen offers a conspectus of his art: we encounter landscapes; figure studies encompassing ordinary people engaged in mundane tasks as well as noted courtiers and demi-gods; comic presentations of animals behaving like humans (pp. 18–19 on the website) that prefigure similar scenes by Kawanabe Kyōsai (see Kyōsai suiga FSC-GR-780.293; vol. 1, pp.18–19); and flower, bird and animal studies. This author believes that some of the finestdesigns in the book are included among the latter group, most notably the complex presentation of an array of autumn flowering plants (pp. 24–25). The relatively subdued palette characterizing this work is deployed throughout with great skill.

This book is produced to a very high standard. The block-cutter and the printer, neither of whom is named in the book’s back matter, adeptly realised the artist’s intentions. The cutting of the key block for a pair of resting cats is remarkable for its economy and effectiveness in conveying the texture of their fur, while overprinting with light tints differentiates the one animal from the other (pp. 36–37). Careful wiping of the pigments on the printing blocks allows for subtle shading of tones that is one of the outstanding characteristics of the book.

There is a gap of two years between the date of the preface (1832) and the date of the colophon (1834), but such a lag in production is not uncommon. Sonan gafu is a relatively rare book and light soiling does not detract from the impact of the designs in this copy. The original covers are decorated with rondels reminiscent of patterns encountered on antique silks; they are printed onto a textured ground that replicates the weave of fine fabric. The publisher, Kobayashi Shinbē (Sūsanbō 嵩山房), employed the same cover design for Chinnen’s other book, Azuma no teburi. In early printings of the latter, the rondels are printed in reflective mica against a blue ground.

Selected readings:
Louise Norton Brown, Block Printing & Book Illustration in Japan (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1924).

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1987), see esp. vol. 2, pp. 768–72.

Roger S. Keyes, Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan (The New York Public Library in association with the University of Washington Press, 2006).

C. H. Mitchell, with the assistance of Osamu Ueda, The Illustrated Books of the Nanga, Maruyama, Shijo and Other Related Schools of Japan. A Biobibliography (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1972).

Kenji Toda, Descriptive Catalogue of the Japanese and Chinese Illustrated Books in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: 1931; repr., Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2004).

Copies in other collections:

Art Institute of Chicago

British Museum, London

Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden

New York Public Library, New York City